ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology Centers
Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related institutions.
*****************************************************************************

A local (Lawrenceburg, TN) Church of Christ sponsored a seminar this 
Saturday (July 11, 2009) entitled "Creation versus Evolution".  I attended 
the seminar.  My reason for attending was that I wanted to be prepared in 
the event that a school board or other governmental entity might consider 
putting some form of Intelligent Design into the school system and I wanted 
to understand the arguments that might be presented.

The speaker was Dr. Brad Harrub.  Dr. Harrub is an excellent speaker; 
well-versed on the subject matter that he presents; and offers quick 
responses to any and all questions.  This concludes the positive comments.

Dr. Harrub's primary position is that atheists, evolutionists, ancient 
Greeks, and current educators are all the epitome of evil.  He had nothing 
good to say about any members of those groups.

If it is not in the Bible then it doesn't exist and no interpretation of the 
Bible is acceptable other than a strict literal interpretation.

Some interesting points of his presentation:

* The earth is 6,000 years old.

His proof was an analysis of the age at death that numerous individuals 
achieved, starting with Adam and progressing through Seth, Noah, Moses, 
Abraham, and many others.  The final individual was Joseph but strangely 
absent was the amount of time that has expired after Joseph's death.

He supported his analysis with the claim (probably correct) that the earth's 
magnetic field has lost 6% of its strength over the past 150 years.  He did 
not address the point that this analysis has the earth losing its magnetic 
field within a 2,500 year period.  He did imply that the earth started with 
a full strength magnetic field and has been weakening in a linear manner at 
the 6% per 150 years rate since God created it.

* Man and dinosaurs have always co-existed.

His proof was the crude drawings of animals inherent in Inca, Aztec, 
Egyptian, and Cambodian cultures.  The drawings he presented appeared to me 
to more closely resemble camels, vicunas and llamas.

* Fire breathing dragons were real and actually were fire breathing 
dinosaurs.

His proof is that cows belch substantial amounts of methane.  So why not 
dinosaurs.  The ignition source is easily explained since fireflies possess 
just such a source.  (Really???)

* Noah had dinosaurs on his ark.

He claimed that Noah achieved this by taking the eggs of dinosaurs instead 
of full grown Brontosaurus or Tyrannosaurus.  (I do not recall God telling 
Noah to take eggs.)

* The U.S. Navy designs its ships to correspond to the geometry of Noah's 
ark.

(I guess this is what they study at Annapolis.)

* The dinosaurs were killed off by man.

His proof is that man has always killed off all pests.

* Dinosaurs are mentioned in the Bible.

He stated that the term "dinosaur" was coined far to late to appear in the 
Bible. (Okay, I will buy that.  It was coined in 1841 by Sir Richard Owen.)

He quoted the Book of Job, Chapter 40, verses 15-17.  As he quoted those 
verses, he described a behemoth with a tail like a cedar.  (Okay, that 
sounds interesting.)

However, verse 17 actually states that the behemoth's tail MOVES like a 
cedar.  He stopped with verse 17.  If he had continued then he would have 
revealed that this behemoth was capable of opening his mouth and drinking up 
the entire Jordan river.  Ooops! That rules out Argentinosaurus.

For those still reading this, I offer the actual wording of Job, Chapter 40, 
Verses 15-24.

15: Behold now behemoth, which I made with thee; he eateth grass as an ox.
16: Lo now, his strength is in his loins, and his force is in the navel of 
his belly.
17: He moveth his tail like a cedar: the sinews of his stones are wrapped 
together.
18: His bones are as strong pieces of brass; his bones are like bars of 
iron.
19: He is the chief of the ways of God: he that made him can make his sword 
to approach unto him.
20: Surely the mountains bring him forth food, where all the beasts of the 
field play.
21: He lieth under the shady trees, in the covert of the reed, and fens.
22: The shady trees cover him with their shadow; the willows of the brook 
compass him about.
23: Behold, he drinketh up a river, and hasteth not: he trusteth that he can 
draw up Jordan into his mouth.
24: He taketh it with his eyes: his nose pierceth through snares.


It was not clear to me that the audience accepted the presentation.  I 
personally heard no one discussing it - either pro or con.  One person did 
ask me about one of the ancient drawings that resembled a stegosaurus and 
was presented as such.  I pointed out that while there was some similarity, 
the tail was completely wrong (no spikes), the drawing depicted a single row 
of plates while a stegosaurus had two rows and that the head and neck of a 
stegosaurus was much smaller than the drawing depicted.  In fact, the head 
and neck of the drawing looked more like that of a camel.

Dr. Harrub did present some pictures of an area being excavated.  The 
excavation was sufficiently large to expose many layers of different types 
of sedimentation.  Within the vertical structure were columns that appeared 
to be a homogeneous material.  Dr. Harrub claimed that these columns were 
trees and was proof that different layers of sedimentation did not represent 
different time periods.  If anyone has knowledge of such columns that I have 
just described, please post it as I would like to understand this point.

Jack Cannon

***********************************************************************
For information about the Association of Science-Technology Centers and the Informal Science Education Network please visit www.astc.org.

Check out the latest case studies and reviews on ExhibitFiles at www.exhibitfiles.org.

The ISEN-ASTC-L email list is powered by LISTSERVR software from L-Soft. To learn more, visit
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html.

To remove your e-mail address from the ISEN-ASTC-L list, send the
message  SIGNOFF ISEN-ASTC-L in the BODY of a message to
[log in to unmask]